Survey says Chesco teens don't take marijuana seriously

WEST CHESTER – The biennial survey of use of drugs and alcohol among Chester County youth had some disturbing findings, the county commissioners were told last week.

Although he use of alcohol had dropped over the past six years among each grade level evaluated, and the practice of drinking and driving has steadily declined so that the level is lower than the statewide average, that behavior seems not to extend to the use of marijuana, a representative of the county’s Drug and Alcohol Services said in a presentation on Tuesday.

“Our youth is not getting the message about marijuana,” said Kathy Collier, a prevention specialist with the department who went through the results of the 2011 Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) for the three commissioners.

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“They tend to think that marijuana is natural, it comes from the ground,” and thus is somehow safer than alcohol use, Collier said. Recent decriminalization measures passed in Washington and Colorado have also clouded the efforts to make students see the risk in marijuana use.

Collier took the commissioners through the results detailing the driving habits of alcohol and marijuana users in the county who answered the survey.

Of those who responded, 15.4 percent of 12th graders in the county reported driving after drinking, a decrease of 8.4 percent from 2003 when the results were 23.8 percent. The 2011 results, she said, marked the first time that county 12th graders report lower drinking and driving incidences than the statewide average, she said.

But as for “drugging and driving” – that is, getting behind the wheel after having smoked marijuana – the numbers are different. Even though the percentage of those responding who answered yes to the question has dropped since 2003, from 25.2 percent to 22 percent, the number was still higher than those drinking and driving. And, the 12th graders who answered “consistently report higher rates than the statewide” average of 18.4 percent, Collier said.

The number are significant, she said, since the survey gives a fairly honest picture of the attitudes and behaviors of the children in the county, Collier told the commissioners.

“This is a reflection of our youth in Chester County,” she said, standing next to Vince Brown the office director, who introduced the survey. “What are they saying their life is life, and what can we do to make them live a more healthy life.”

The survey is delivered every two years to 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, allowing the county’s drug and alcohol workers to spot overall trends as the children grow up through the system. It gives the department a chance to determine whether it is meeting goals set out in the county’s strategic plan for a healthy community.

In large part, the department has come close to meeting its goals, the survey said. The county set targets of 75 percent of children and adolescents not using alcohol; 90 percent not using marijuana; and 94 percent not using other illicit drug besides marijuana. The results in those categories were 77 percept for alcohol, 89 percent for marijuana, and 94 percent for illicit drugs.

The use of alcohol is still the biggest risk factor among county youth, the survey shows, although the average age of first use seems to be creeping up, Collier said. In 2007, students tried alcohol at age 14.1, and began using it regularly at age 15.5. The 2011 numbers were 14.4 years old and 15.6 years old, respectively.

Smoking marijuana came to county youth at age 14.6 in 2007 and 14.8 in 2011.

Although alcohol is still used more than any other drug the percentage of those surveyed reporting using it within the past 30 days dropped in 2011 among every age group. The highest use came among 12th graders, 49.9 percent. Overall, 23.2 percent of responders reporting using alcohol, some as early as 6th grade.

Collier said that a large question that the evaluators had to address is whether the results are sound, given that the use of drugs involved is self-reported by those students taking the survey. She said of the returned surveys, 5 percent had been disqualified because they were blatantly false – reporting use of a certain fictional drug, for instances. “We never know for certain,” she acknowledged.

She said that when the evaluators saw that a responder had reported using drug and alcohol every day for a month or so, they were also tossed. “It is unlikely if that were the case they would be in school taking a survey.”

Full results of the survey can be found at the department’s site on www.chesco.org.